1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a sliding hinge, especially to a sliding hinge mounted between a cover and a body of an electronic device to allow the cover to slide relative to the body.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
Electronic devices with sliding hinges such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants are widely used. A conventional electronic device has a cover and a body. The cover is mounted slidably relative to the body via a conventional sliding hinge. The cover has a screen and some buttons mounted thereon. The body has keyboard mounted thereon and electronic elements mounted therein.
With reference to FIG. 14, the screen and the buttons on the cover 60 connect electrically to the electronic elements in the body 70 through a flat cable 80 to receive and transport signals. Two ends of the flat cable 80 respectively extend into the cover 60 and the body 70. Since the cover 60 is slidable relative to the body 70, relative positions of the ends of the flat cable 80 are changed with the slide. For example, when the cover 60 is closed relative to the body 70 as shown in FIG. 14, the ends of the flat cable 80 are distant from each other so that the flat cable 80 is stretched tightly. When the cover 60 is opened relative to the body 70 as shown in FIG. 15, the ends of the flat cable 80 are near to each other so that the flat cable 80 becomes loose. The loose cable 80 affects the sliding between the cover 60 and the body 70. The loose cable 80 may also tangle with the electronic elements in the body 70 so that the cable 80 may break or damage the electronic elements when the cable 80 is stretched again.
The sliding distance of the cover 60 could be shortened to cut down the length of the cable 80 in order to minimize the occurrence of the tangled cable 80 with the electronic elements; however, the shorter the sliding distance of the cover 60 is, the less space for mounting the keyboard on the body 70 would be. Reducing the keyboard's size decreases the functions provided by the conventional electronic device. As nowadays users expect more and more functions from the electronic devices, the aforementioned solution is not useful.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a sliding hinge to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.